Facebook's first half revenue has nearly doubled to $1.6bn, despite the advent of new rivals like Google+.

Net income for the half was almost $500m, a source toldReuters, adding that they did not want to be named because privately-held Facebook doesn't have to tell anyone what it makes.

The results can only help any potential IPO Facebook might be plotting, something the pundits expect sometime next year. Latest valuations put the social network at $79.2bn, a princely sum, but around $5bn less than it would have made if it had gone public at the beginning of July.

Some attribute the fall in Facebook's share prices to either "Facebook fatigue", a nice little moniker meant to convey that everyone's sick of the network already, or because everyone would much rather be tweeting or chilling in a Google+ Hangout.

But the results would suggest that Facebook's advertisers are keeping the faith and helping the company turn eyeballs into money.

There's also been other evidence to back up the idea that Facebook ain't quite dead yet, with bean-counter comScore reporting its highest ever unique visitor numbers in July at 162 million.

At the time of publishing, Facebook had not responded to requests for comment. ®